Temperature Monitoring RR

[Chattahoochee]

I was wondering if anyone has ever had to setup a system to monitor temperature of the contents of a parked stationary railroad tank car.
I can find no information if thermowells are standard on tank cars?
Short of just opening the top hatch and dropping a thermocouple into the material (non-hazardous liquid wax) I don't know of any solutions.
Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[RDS]

Not sure the reason for monitoring but these may work for you:
http://www.ptc1.com/pdf/612.pdf
Also, Lascar make a small battery powered datalogger that will do temperature but would have to be external to the contents.

 

[Mickey]

Surface mount may be an option.I have seen them used on insulated vessels with good results.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=surface+mount+temperature+sensor

 

[Steve Bailey]

Surface mount may be an option

I'm not sure what percentage of the tank cars in use are double-wall construction, but I know that with the increased volume of crude oil transport by rail, there is a lot of pressure for the industry to move in that direction. Unless the OP knows for sure that his customer will only be dealing with single-wall tanks, a surface-mount sensor may not be viable.

 

[Chattahoochee]

Thanks for the reply, it would be a 4-20 analog signal to the PLC for heat control via steam lines, now it is done with timers and they want a more accurate way of doing it to ensure the contents don't get too hot.

 

[Chattahoochee]

I'm not sure what percentage of the tank cars in use are double-wall construction, but I know that with the increased volume of crude oil transport by rail, there is a lot of pressure for the industry to move in that direction. Unless the OP knows for sure that his customer will only be dealing with single-wall tanks, a surface-mount sensor may not be viable.

I had seen these on the Omega website but didn't know how close the reading would be if the tank wall was double wall. It would also eliminate having to lower a thermocouple as the material slowly empties from the tank
Will run this by their people and see if they want to go that route, thanks.

 

[shooter]

If you can not get into the tank put the sensor on the steamline return.
stay as close as possible to the steampipe preventing overheating.
for a simple control look at a deepfrier (very simple control just open/close mechanical.)